I Heart SAHMs

Friday, August 28, 2009

I have been using a survey site called Opinion Outpost for quite awhile now. The site connects users with companies that conduct surveys for clients on a wide range of topics. At the time I had only completed surveys, but I had not actually redeemed any of my monetary rewards.

I have to say I am VERY impressed. I looked back at my account and realized I've been a member of Opinion Outpost for about 7 months. In that time I have earned $67.50. Granted, that's not a ton of money, but a couple of things should be pointed out. First, I'm not sure I'm the target audience for a lot of these surveys. I'm a 30 year old guy. There are a lot of these surveys that just don't apply to me. A typical SAHM, however, would be right in the wheelhouse for a lot of these surveys.

Also, there are times when I'm just too busy to respond to surveys. There are times when I just delete every survey I get for about a week at a time. That is a lot of opportunities passed up. If I could respond to every survey (and there are a lot of surveys) I know I could make more money.

The other thing that impressed me was the turn around time on recieiving my check. The website says to allow 4-8 weeks for delivery. No problem. It's not like I need this money to live on right this second. But surprise, surprise. My check showed up yesterday less than a week after I requested it. That is a really good response time.

So I am officially fully endorsing Opinion Outpost as a survey research panel. The surveys are easy to comprehend. The website is set up very well. And most importantly, they actually pay you for your time. So if you're interested, just click on the banner at the top of this post and sign up. It doesn't cost a dime to sign up and you could be earning money in a matter of minutes. Have fun.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

I know I've had some Restaurant.com deals on here before, but this one is ridiculous. You can get a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant in your area for just $2. That's one hell of a deal. All you have to do is click on the link above and use the Promo Code "NAPKIN" when you check out. It's pretty darn simple.

I think I've figured out the one thing that is the difference between a good day and a bad day for my wife: time management! Of course there are those wildcard variables that can wreck even the best-planned day. My son scraping his knee falling on the driveway, my daughter deciding today is the day she going to bite her brother repeatedly. But those things aside, time management can make or break a SAHM's day.

For some people time management is second nature. They have no problem setting up a schedule, planning out a day and sticking to it. I don't think my wife and I are like that. We try. We really do. I swear. But there are plenty of times it just doesn't happen.

So I started doing some research and came across a couple of websites that profess to help those of us that are time management deficient. Today we'll cover one of the websites, and we'll get to the other one tomorrow. The first website I came across was Motivated Moms. The website offes printable chore lists to help with the sometimes difficult task of deciding what needs to be done when. If you're like our family, looking at a house of chores that need to be done can be very daunting. Where do you start? What task comes next? My wife likes to tell me I have ADHD, so I typically jump from one job to the next.

According to the website, the Motivated Moms chore lists are "designed to help you complete chores and tasks throughout the year so that you don’t spend your entire day doing housework." And let's be honest, nobody wants to spend all day doing housework. The goal is to reduce stress and make it easier to maintain your home in the easiest possible manner.

The chore lists come in 8 different styles and can be easily downloaded for a measly $4 on the website. All you need is a PayPal account. Here is a sample of a Full Sized Weekly Planner.

Monday, July 20, 2009

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted on here! I bet all 5 of my regular readers are terribly disappointed in me.

I don't know about you guys, but we buy a lot of things online. We buy presents online from places like Amazon.com and target.com. We also buy a lot of picture prints and picture gifts online. Our favorite is Snapfish. We just bought my mom a new mousepad with a picture of all 3 kids on it (presents are so easy when you have kids!).

While placing our latest order on Snapfish we thought about trying to find a promotion code to save some money. Much to my surprise, there are plenty of websites dedicated to sharing these promo codes for all kinds of websites. We used a code that saved us $10 for any order over $25. Not a bad deal for a 45 second Google search.

The website we used for our Snapfish order was RetailMeNot.com. This website claims to have coupons for more than 20,000 stores. Who knows if that is true, but there certainly seem to be codes and coupons for every major store I searched for. I also like the fact that people can click a single button to share whether or not the code worked for them. There is also a success rate displayed as a percentage.

Friday, June 19, 2009

So it's another Fatherhood Friday over at Dad Blogs and I thought I would discuss something that is truly unique to dads while asking for a SAHM's opinion: penises. At least I think that is the plural of penis. Maybe it's peni. Regardless, I think people understand what we're talking about here.

But specifically I want to talk about my son and his recent infatuation with his little helper. I walked into the bathroom the other day to help him after he finished going to the bathroom. See, we're in the final stages of potty training. Actually, we're pretty much done. He knows when he has to go, can go by himself, etc. The only thing we've yet to master is pulling up our underwear and pants. It's not uncommon for him to waddle out of the bathroom with pants around ankles. It's actually pretty funny.

But back to the point. I head into the bathroom to help pull up his shorts and I stop dead in my tracks. He has picked up Mom's small make-up mirror and is using it to get a better look at his man parts. And it was a pretty good inspection.

As a guy I realize we are all transfixed by our junk, but I didn't know how to react. I realize it's completely natural, but it was a little crazy. I don't even remember if I said anything. I certainly didn't want to embarass him or stunt his maturation. But still, what is the right response in that situation? Just ignore it? What happens when I walk in on my little girl doing the same thing in a year or so?